At RealClearMarkets Doug Kass collects a group of very dumb things said by very smart people some of which may surprise you. He concludes with a quote from Janet Yellen:
Would I say there will never, ever be another financial crisis? … You know, probably that would be going too far, but I do think we’re much safer and I hope that it will not be in our lifetimes and I don’t believe it will be.
What’s the smart bet here? I think that until and unless we change the incentives that are in place we’ll keep getting the results we’ve gotten. More quickly and more catastrophically with each turn of the crank.
I suppose that depends on the definition of financial crisis. But my God, man, IL is insolvent with a pension system hopelessly underfunded, and quite a few national governments are in similar shape with the entire suite of entitlements, including our own. I don’t believe in a costless printing operation. That woman is crazy.
Tying the comment along one of this blogs “favorite” topics. I have a solution for Illinois’s problems, get itself designated as a “systemically important financial institution”. Then get the Federal Reserve to “inject” capital.
Its almost too perfect really, the Congress / President gets to wash its hands of the matter, and more importantly for Illinois politicians, no Banker was ever persecuted for their role in the financial crisis.
Costless, no, but the situation the U. S. has is the next thing to it. A financial sovereign with the dollar the reserve currency. That will persist as long as there’s no viable alternative which is beginning to look like forever. We don’t have to be in good shape. The dollar just has to be preferred to the euro.
I’m in Italy right now. I just saw in the news that (the city of) Chicago has distinguished itself by putting an inflammatory anti-Trump sign right in front of Trump Tower.
Smooth, Rahm. smooth.
Very popular with the donors, however. It’s all about the donors with Emanuel.